Spreaders designed for handling semi-solid or slurry manure and solid manure generally include a tank for containing manure, an auger rotatably mounted in the bottom of the tank for moving manure toward an opening formed in the tank, and an expeller disposed at the opening in the tank to discharge manure in a lateral direction from the tank. One spreader of this general type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,272.
When handling solid manure, a problem exists with such spreaders in that manure contained in the tank sometimes forms itself into a bridge above the auger thereby preventing this bridged manure from being conveyed toward the expeller by the auger. One attempt to overcome this problem has been to provide for the raising of the auger in the tank from its normal position into manure that may be bridged above the auger to break up the bridged manure. This is undesirable, however, because the auger cannot effectively keep moving manure toward the expeller while being raised above its normal position. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a material breaking device for breaking up manure bridging in the type of spreader generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,272 while allowing the auger to be maintained in a position for moving manure toward the expeller at all times.